26 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



cularly in the tribe of Ddguis, now called Ingushi. Those mountains were explored by Gul- 

 denstaedt by order of Catharine ; in Vol. I. he says, ' They call themselves Ingushi; they are 

 Christians. They believe in one God, whom they call Daile (in Irish Duile). Many of their vil- 

 lages have a stone tower, which now serves them, in time of war, as a retreat to their women and 

 children.'" Ib. p. 124. 



The preceding passages are followed by an extract from Dr. Baumgarten, 

 concerning the religion of the Scythians, in which, however, there is nothing 

 about fire, but that they worshipped an invisible deity, and admitted of no 

 images, but, like the Magi, made use only of symbols. This again is followed 

 by an extract from the Horte Bibhca3 of Mr. Butler, concerning the religion of 

 the ancient Persians, and another from the same work concerning the Edda: 

 after which he compares certain words in the Zend and Brahminical languages 

 with the Irish, to shew their similarity, and for others refers to the Preface to 

 the Prospectus of his Irish Dictionary, and then says : 



" From all which I conclude, with certainty, that the Old Irish, or Aire-Coti, the primitive 

 inhabitants of Britain and the western isles, were the Ar-Coti of Caucasus, and the Ara-Cotii of 

 Dionysius, from the borders of the Indus, whence they were called Indo-Scythas ; that they were 

 mixed with the Brahmins, who at that period built round towers for the preservation of the holy 

 fire, in imitation of which those in Ireland and Scotland were built." Ib. p. 133. 



I have given the arguments and evidences of General Vallancey thus fully, 

 lest it might be thought that I did him injustice by their abridgment: and I am 

 satisfied, that with the learned and unprejudiced reader it will be deemed un- 

 necessary to offer a word of comment on them that it will be but a waste 

 of tune to reply to arguments resting on conjectural etymologies unsupported 

 by authority of any kind, and vague references to Irish history, without any inti- 

 mation in what author, manuscript, printed book, or library, they may be found. 

 But as I shall have many readers to whom such evidences have been " strong 

 as proofs of holy writ," and who will not be thus easily satisfied, it is impe- 

 rative on me, however painful, to present them with such demonstrative proofs 

 of their insufficiency to sustain the conclusions drawn, as even they must re- 

 ceive as incontrovertible. 



In the first paragraph above quoted, General Vallancey tells us, that it ap- 

 pears evident from Irish history that, as in ancient Persia, so in ancient Ireland, 

 there were two sects of fire-worshippers, one that lighted the fires on the tops 



